All States Not Equal on Veterans Care

Veterans Affairs Hospitals Vary Widely in Patient Care
Internal Records Show Facilities Such as Phoenix Have Far Higher Death Rates Than Peers
Wall Street Journal
By THOMAS M. BURTON and DAMIAN PALETTA CONNECT
Updated June 3, 2014

The Phoenix facility at the heart of the crisis at the Department of Veterans Affairs is among a number of VA hospitals that show significantly higher rates of mortality and dangerous infections than the agency's top-tier hospitals, internal records show.

The criticism that precipitated last week's resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has focused largely on excessive wait times for appointments across the VA's 150-hospital medical system.

But a detailed tabulation of outcomes at a dozen VA hospitals made available to The Wall Street Journal illustrates a deeper challenge: vastly disparate treatment results and what some VA doctors contend is the slippage of quality in recent years at some VA facilities.

Some of the discrepancies are stark, especially for an agency known for offering high-quality care in 50 states.
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From 2012
All states do not treat this nation's veterans the same